INCREASING THE SUCCESS & PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN COMPUTING RESEARCH CRA-WomenWinter/Spring 2017 Edition This Issue: NEWSLETTER P1 Highlight on Alum Lana Yarosh P1 Carol Frieze wins 2017 A. Nico Habermann Award Highlight on Alum Lana Yarosh P2 Interview with Lori Clarke P4 New CRA-W Co-Chair Svetlana “Lana” Yarosh is an Assistant Professor in the Computer P5 CRA-W Alums Named Science & Engineering Department at University of Minnesota. Fellows Her research in HCI focuses on embodied interaction in social computing P6 CRA-W Continues Research systems. Lana has won NSF CRII and the NSF CAREER grants, and best Mentoring at the 2016 GHC paper awards at CHI 2013 and CSWC 2014. She is a recipient of the McKnight P7 Thank You to Our Donors Land Grant Professorship. Lana has two Bachelor’s of Science degrees P8 Highlight on Alum from the University of Maryland (in Computer Science and Psychology), a Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Institute of Technology, Lana Yarosh (continued) and two years of industry research experience with AT&T Labs Research. P10 CRA-W Alums Elected as She attended CRA-W’s Career Mentoring Workshop for early-career members of the NAE researchers. P10 CRA-W Alums Win Awards continued on page 8 P11 Alum News P12 SWSIS P13 CERP Receives SIGCSE Carol Frieze wins 2017 A. Nico Paper Award P14 InWIC Habermann Award P15 Profiles in Computing: Tanya Amert Carol Frieze, director of SCS4ALL and Women@SCS at Carnegie Mellon P16 About CRA-W University (CMU), was selected as the recipient of the 2017 A. Nico Habermann Award Winner for devoting nearly two decades to promoting diversity and Editors: inclusiveness in computing. She has worked with and supported a wide variety of students including women, people with disabilities, and various Carla Ellis, Duke University age groups ranging from K-12 to graduate students. Amanda Stent, Bloomberg Carol has contributed valuable research towards understanding the challenges diverse populations face, and in many ways, her research has challenged the existing narrative in the field. And it’s had impact: 48% of computer science majors in the 2016 incoming freshman class at CMU are women, far above the national average.

Carol’s work towards improving diversity and inclusion in computing goes well beyond advocacy. She has shared her knowledge with others by developing teacher resources, books, and course materials. She also participates in conferences and other programs including CRA- W’s Collaborative Research Experiences for Undergraduates (CREU) program.

Carol’s nomination letters attest that she played an important role in creating an inclusive environment at CMU, and her research can help others learn best practices and insights to help spread this type of progress beyond her home institution to the entire community. www.cra-w.org @CRAWomen Interview with Lori Clarke My current research is primarily focused on improving medical Interviewed by Carla Ellis, Duke University safety and builds on these past contributions. Working with Leon Osterweil, George Avrunin, and a number of grad students and medical professionals, our medical safety team has been modeling Lori A. Clarke is an emerita professor schedule. In many ways, being a research faculty member is like life-critical healthcare processes and using static analysis and in the College of Information and running your own research enterprise. Your efforts determine how property specification techniques to find defects and vulnerabilities Computer Sciences, University of successful you are and how large an enterprise you oversee, but at in these processes. Our most current work is exploring how these Massachusetts Amherst, having the same time, your faculty position provides a safety net in case validated processes can be used to provide on-line, situational- retired in 2015 after serving on your research ambitions temporarily exceed your financial support. aware guidance during error-prone, critical procedures. In the long the faculty for forty years and term, we hope that the detailed process execution histories will as chair from 2011-2015. She is a Don’t think I am being overly Pollyannaish; there are downsides to provide important feedback about the effectiveness of different Fellow of the ACM and IEEE, and a being a faculty member. It is very demanding and requires great process alternatives. I believe this is going to be a major future Lori meets with colleagues, Bruce Croft, Debra Richardson, board member of the Computing dedication. And I don’t think anyone enjoys having to create and and Jan Cuny at the CRA Snowbird Conference research direction, combining software engineering and data Research Association’s Committee grade exam questions. My career path was purely serendipitous. I decided to try academia analytics in new ways. on the Status of Women in because I was advised that it is easier to move from an academic Computing Research (CRA-W). In retirement, I have defined a path forward where I get to continue job to an industrial job than vice-versa; I was trying to keep my Q: How have you been involved in CRA-W? What has this involvement She is a former vice chair of the doing those parts of my career that I enjoy the most (i.e., doing options open until I knew what I wanted to do. I started my faculty meant to you? One of the challenges early in my career was not Computing Research Association (CRA), IEEE Publication Board research and working with students), while jettisoning those position wondering if I was going to actually like it. Luckily for me, I having many role models or female colleagues. Although software member, associate editor of ACM TOPLAS and IEEE TSE, member of that I don’t relish. I am presently working with my colleagues on soon discovered that I really loved being a faculty member. engineering tended to have more women researchers than many the CCR NSF advisory board, and ACM SIGSOFT chair. Awards include developing technology for modeling and analyzing human-intensive other fields in computing, women were still a very small minority. the 2012 SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award, 2011 University of processes. We are currently engaged in a project where we are Q: Explain a bit about your most recent research activities. How has Researchers such as Barbara Ryder, Mary Lou Soffa, and Mary Massachusetts Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and further developing the technology and evaluating it as applied your research evolved over time? I was one of the early developers Jean Harrold were wonderful colleagues and friends. We were very Creative Activity Award, 2009 College of Natural Sciences and to cardiac surgery. Although we believe this approach has broad of symbolic execution, a technique that provided a foundation for motivated to help pave a path for more women to enter computing. Mathematics Outstanding Faculty Service Award, 2004 University applicability, it will be very exciting to see how it applies to this software verification, testing, and program analysis. At the time, of Colorado, Boulder Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award and challenging, life-critical domain. computing power was too limited to make these approaches I was delighted to become involved in CRA-W because of the 2002 SIGSOFT Distinguished Service Award. widely applicable, but concepts from this work are now found in opportunities it provided to help women (and minorities) succeed Q: Tell us about your decision to enter computer science and your commercial test data generation and static analysis tools as well in computing and, selfishly, for the opportunities it provided me In addition to her research accomplishments, Lori has a long career path. I loved computing from the moment I wrote my first as in many research prototypes. to meet so many amazing women in computing outside of my history of working to increase the diversity of those participating (machine code) program. I was a (not very good) mathematics primary research areas. Careers associated with computing have in computing. She is an active board member of CRA-W, previously undergrad and I loved getting concrete answers, instead of Frustrations with developing and maintaining a symbolic execution the possibility of positively impacting the lives of so many people, in serving as co-chair and now serving as co-director of Grad Cohort, wondering if my proof had flaws. Perhaps that is why later in system led to my interest in software development environments. addition to being intellectually and financially rewarding. I strongly an annual two-day mentoring workshop for women graduate graduate school, I was interested in techniques that would I was one of the principal investigators in the multi-institutional believe that it is important to make sure that the doors are open to students. She was instrumental in helping the Coalition to Diversify automatically help determine definitely what we knew (and didn’t Arcadia Project, which made several contributions that are now all individuals who have the interest and aptitude to pursue such Computing (CDC) and CRA-W develop coordinated programs. Within know) about a particular program. mainstays of IDEs. careers. her college, she has fostered an active Women in Computer Science Q: How do you balance work and family life? What do you enjoy group. Lori has been involved in a number of mentoring programs Ever since I was a graduate student, I was intrigued with the doing when you aren’t working? One of the benefits of having a and advised and mentored an impressive set of graduate students. information that could be derived from programs using data flow analysis techniques. FLAVERS, developed with my graduate student Q: You recently retired after 40 years on the computer science Matt Dwyer, was one of the first model-checking systems to work faculty at UMass. What did you enjoy most about your career? directly on distributed programs. It automatically creates a concise What are your plans going forward? Being a professor is the best but imprecise model and uses compositional data-flow analysis job in the world! Doing research and teaching at the university level to allow precision to be added incrementally. Recognizing that means that you are being paid to engage in life-long learning about specifying the properties for verification is itself an error-prone topics that intrigue you the most. In addition to the intellectual exercise, my graduate student Rachel Cobleigh, my colleague, challenges, being a professor provides opportunities to work George Avrunin, and I developed the PROPEL property elucidation closely with students. Helping students learn about research and system. PROPEL explicitly represents the various options associated develop the skills to further their own careers is one of the most with the most common property patterns and allows specifiers to rewarding aspects of being a faculty member. Another bonus is Lori working with Heather Conboy, who is view these as templates in a number of possible representations, the independence of setting your own research direction and getting her PhD this spring. including as finite-state automata and as English text. Lori loves to travel. Here she is in the Swiss Alps.

2 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER 3 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER family is that it places demands on your time to NOT work. To be a good parent or partner means that you must put aside your work New CRA-W Co-Chair CRA-W Alums Named Fellows of ACM and IEEE and devote time and energy to your family, which is really a benefit to you as well as to your family. I cherish the time with my family.

I enjoy playing tennis, skiing, hiking, and traveling, all activities that The IEEE and ACM, two of the major professional societies dedicated Manuela M. Veloso I continue to do with my family. My husband and I have a blended to scientific and technological innovation, including advancements Carnegie Mellon University (I actually hate this word because it suggests an unrealistic level in computing, have recently named several women who have been Recognized for contributions to the field of homogeneity) family with 5 wonderful grown children and one active in CRA-W programs as new Fellows of their organizations. of artificial intelligence, in particular in adorable granddaughter. We extend our congratulations! planning, learning, multi-agent systems, and robotics. Q: Do you have any advice for women at any stage of their careers? ACM Fellows Manuela is a former board member of Go for it! There are so many opportunities that can be pursued CRA-W. now. If there is something that really appeals to you then pursue The ACM has recognized 53 of its members as Fellows for their it wholeheartedly. If it doesn’t turn out or you find that it is not contributions to computing that are driving innovations across Radia Perlman what you expected or wanted, there are other avenues to be multiple domains and disciplines. EMC explored. This is true when you are first starting your career A.J. Brush hands off co-chair of CRA-W to Julia Hirschberg Recognized for contributions to the theory and practice of Internet Carla E. Brodley routing and bridging protocols. Radia participated in a DSW. as well as when you are well established. We are so lucky that Julia Hirschberg (Columbia University) has stepped forward to begin individuals with computational skills are in such wide demand now Northeastern University a three year term as CRA-W co-chair. She takes over from A.J. Brush and are expected to remain so long into the future. This provides Recognized for applications of who recently completed her term. Julia joins Nancy Amato who tremendous flexibility to take chances and pursue your dreams. machine learning and for increasing IEEE Fellows remains as co-chair for another year. We want to thank A.J. for participation of women in computer providing excellent leadership. A.J. will continue to serve CRA-W by IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members Q: What challenges have you had to overcome as a woman? The science. whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of most difficult challenge was dealing with societal expectations organizing the career mentoring tracks that CRA-W offers at the Carla is a former co-chair of CRA-W. interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious membership level. when I was a child. I was immediately drawn to mathematics and annual Grace Hopper Celebration. science, and at that period of time most people I interacted with considered this an abnormality that I would (and should) outgrow. Justine Cassell Sandhya Dwarkadas Starting in junior high, I was “tracked’ into advanced course, but Carnegie Mellon University University of Rochester Recognized for contributions to was one of only a few females in the mathematics and science Recognized for contributions to human-computer interaction and shared memory and reconfigurability. courses. I am particularly appreciative of the support I received advocacy for empowerment and voice through technology. Sandhya is a member of the board from my junior high and high school physics teachers who were Justine has served as a DREU mentor. of CRA-W. She leads the Borg Early both very supportive of my interests. To better understand the Career Award committee and serves climate at this time, my first assigned physics lab partner in Holly Rushmeier as co-director of Grad Cohort. college complained to the instructor about being disadvantaged Yale University because he had to work with a female and asked to be (and was) Recognized for work on global reassigned another lab partner. illumination, material capture and display of high-dynamic-range images. Julia Hirschberg Most importantly, I was very lucky that my father was a staunch Holly is a member of the board of Columbia University Recognized for contributions to feminist and fully supported and encouraged my interests. He died CRA-W and is co-director of the mid- text-to-speech synthesis and spoken when I was in college, but I know he would have been delighted Career Mentoring Workshop. language understanding. with my career choices. Valerie E. Taylor Julia currently serves as co-chair of CRA-W. Although inequality is still a major problem along many dimensions Texas A&M University throughout society, I am delighted that there has been significant Recognized for leadership in progress during my lifetime. broadening participation in computing. Wenye Wang You can learn more about Lori’s research by viewing the April Valerie is a former board member of North Carolina State Recognized for contributions to modeling and performance 7th Virtual Undergraduate Town Hall webinar at http://cra.org/ CRA-W. evaluation of wireless networks. cra-w/events/virtual-undergraduate-town-hall-using-software- Wenye participated in a DSW. engineering-help-reduce-medical-errors.

4 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER 5 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER served as bookends to the program. At these events, students met CRA-W Continues Research Mentoring at the 2016 GHC each other and later shared what they had learned. by Andrea Danyluk, Williams College, and Tracy Camp, Colorado School of Mines Details on the GHC 2016 version of the CRA-W workshops are available here: http://cra.org/cra-w/career-mentoring-workshops- The 2016 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) (Lawrence Berkeley Labs), (3) Preparing for Tenure and Promotion, at-grace-hopper/. CRA-W partners with the Anita Borg Institute in was held October 19-21, 2016, at the George R. Brown Convention presented by Julia Hirschberg (Columbia University) and Jodi Tims order to offer career advice to hundreds of GHC attendees, as well Center in Houston, Texas and broke last year’s attendance record (Baldwin Wallace University), as well as (4) Gaining Recognition for as to ensure they are aware of the other programs that CRA-W with over 15,000 participants this year. For the 8th year in a row, Your Accomplishments in Academia, by Nancy Amato (Texas A&M offers. CRA-W’s GHC 2016 programs would not have been possible CRA-W presented career mentoring content for GHC attendees University) and Ellen Walker (Hiram College). This track – essentially without the additional support of 40 mentor volunteers, many of interested in research. CRA-W Board Member Tracy Camp (Colorado a workshop within the conference – was extremely popular, with whom were current or former CRA-W board members. School of Mines) designed this year’s program, organizing the many students attending multiple presentations. mentoring program into three tracks for early-career academic Energetic CRA staff members (Erik Russell, Melissa Borts, and researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates. Brand new The sessions on Friday, October 21, focused on students at all levels. Sandra Corbett) and several CRA-W board members ensured that CRA-W tables at the Student Opportunity Lab, CRA-W presentations for 2016 was the CRA-W GHC Undergraduate Research Scholars CRA-W staffed ten tables in the Student Opportunity Lab (SOL) the CRA-W booth at GHC 2016 was always fully staffed. The booth and the student poster session, where several posters were Program, spearheaded by CRA-W Co-Chair Nancy Amato (Texas A&M on six different topics: (1) How to Be Successful Post-Bachelor’s, was busier than ever before, with staff answering questions and presented by participants in the CRA-W Distributed Research University) and CRA-W Board Member Andrea Danyluk (Williams (2) Is Graduate School for You?, (3) Masters or Ph.D.?, (4) How to getting the word out about CRA-W’s programs . Experience for Undergraduates (DREU) and Collaborative Research College), which provided funding for undergraduates to attend the Successfully Apply to Graduate School, (5) What is Computing Experience for Undergraduates (CREU) programs. Two special conference, and guidance for finding and navigating the research Research? How Can Undergraduates Participate?, and (6) Research An earlier version appeared in Computing Research News January events – a networking reception for Research Scholars and CRA-W content at GHC. Careers: What Are The Options? How Do I Get There? The SOL was 2017, Vol. 29/No.1. mentors, as well as a breakfast on the final day of the conference – in a large convention center room, and had many tables with 1-2 CRA-W’s mentoring tracks for early-career researchers and graduate mentors at each table leading discussions on different topics. students kicked off on Wednesday, October 19 with “Want to be a Short 20-minute sessions allowed small groups of students to Bias Interruptor?” – an active session that discussed unconscious have interactive discussions with mentors at several different biases that exist in academic computing departments, techniques tables over the 3-hour SOL session. The CRA-W tables, which were for becoming a “bias interruptor,” and included time to practice the primarily designed for undergraduates in the past, included plenty skills learned. This session was a collaboration of CRA-W, ACM-W, of content for graduate students as well as those contemplating and NCWIT, and was organized by Valerie Barr (Union College and going back to school. CRA-W Board Member Andrea Danyluk Thank You to Our Individual Donors ACM-W), Tracy Camp (Colorado School of Mines and CRA-W), and Lucy recruited 40 fabulous mentors, who generously volunteered their Sanders (NCWIT). The featured speakers were Latanya Sweeney time to talk with students, answer questions, and provide advice. (Harvard University) and Brad McLain (NCWIT). For students looking for a larger group mentoring experience, CRA-W CRA-W wants to show our appreciation to the individuals who generously responded to our year-end fundraising appeals. presented three talks on Friday, October 21, focused on building CRA-W’s mentoring program on Thursday, October 20, focused student success: (1) Building Your Academic Professional Network, Sponsors (>$3000 ): Kathryn S McKinley & Scotty Strahan primarily on early-career faculty, with talks on (1) Effective presented by Sunita Chandrasekaran (University of Delaware) Teaching Tactics, presented by Valerie Barr (Union College) and and Soha Hassoun (Tufts University), (2) The Graduate School Contributors ($1,501-$3000): Julia Hirschberg Susan Rodger (Duke University), (2) Research/Funding Strategies Experience, presented by Laura Dillon (Michigan State University) for Faculty, by Andrea Danyluk (Williams College) and Deb Agarwal and Katie Siek (Indiana University Bloomington), and (3) Finding Your Supporters ($501-$1,500): Carla Brodley, A.J. Brush, Tracy Camp, Lori Clarke, Anne Condon, Carla Ellis, Kathleen Fisher, Dream Job with a Ph.D., by Dilma Da Silva (Texas A&M University) and Janie Irwin, and Diane L. Souvaine Rita Wouhaybi (Intel Labs). Friends (up to $500): Nancy Amato and Lawrence Rauchwerger, Sara Amini, Francine Berman, Andrew Bernat, This year CRA-W, with generous funding from the National Science Andrea Danyluk, Dilma Da Silva, Barbara Di Eugenio, Laura Dillon, Aaron Gember-Jacobson, Shambhavi Gupta, Foundation, introduced an exciting new scholarship program for Ayanna Howard, Susanne Hambrusch, Dr. Sheila M. Humphreys, Lizy John, Susan Landau, Angelina Lee, Ming Lin, Patty Lopez, undergraduates with strong interest in computing research. The Theresa Mammarella, Margaret Martonosi, Stacey McNeely, Patricia Morreale, Nannette Napier, Shruti Padmanabha, CRA-W GHC Research Scholars Program provided registration and Heather Pon-Barry, Ann Redelfs, Erik Russell, Barbara Ryder, Zeinab Sadeghipour, Dr. Suzanna Schmeelk, travel funding for 65 students representing 53 different institutions Mary Lou Soffa, Sara Sprenkle, James A Tolbert II, Diman Zad Tootaghaj, and Julita Vassileva to attend GHC for small group mentoring, interaction with other research-interested students, and participation in research-focused There were also 9 donors who wished to remain anonymous, bringing the total to $15,218. events. A “passport” provided Research Scholars with a roadmap Thank you to everyone for your support! for navigating research content at the conference. This roadmap included the ACM Student Research Competition, technical talks,

6 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER 7 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER that the key thing to keep in mind is that these approaches are tools, not Highlight on Alum Lana Yarosh (continued) ends in themselves. These approaches have the potential to improve Interviewed by Amanda Stent, Bloomberg so many facets of our lives, but it also may introduce a substantial threat to fundamental human rights like privacy, justice, belonging, independence, and more. A fundamental thread in my research and shine. He also taught me how to pick research problems -- focusing teaching is in understanding and evaluating technological advances Q: What has been your career path? My start in Computer Science on issues of personal relevance, research novelty, and broader in terms of both the benefits they may provide and the costs they was due to a scheduling error in high school (I was signed up for impact. As I get older in my research program, I find myself reflecting may incur for the people who use them. I think that people seeking European History but it conflicted with another course, so they put more and more on lessons that he imparted. to work at the intersection of the two domains should be trained me in Pascal Programming instead). I found that I really loved the CS in ML methods but also in a human-centered mindset. They should approach as a way of thinking and solving problems. I was also drawn Q: How do you balance work and the rest of your life? What do you be ready to work closely with people and communities affected by to the fact that Computer Science could be combined with almost any enjoy doing when you aren’t working? My favorite thing to do is their research and be willing to change approaches and methods to other field. So I decided to major in it at the University of Maryland travel! The academic career is really well-suited for that. Beyond the advocate for the best interests of those groups. and I explored a few potential double majors as well, eventually yearly trips to major conferences in my field, I also get significant Lana is part of the GroupLens research center at settling on Psychology. In my Junior year, I discovered the area of periods of time each year without teaching commitments (e.g., Q: You have quite a strong online presence. How do you maintain this? University of Minnesota, pictured here Human-Computer Interaction, After participating in undergraduate summer and winter breaks). This can support longer trips that serve How does it serve your career growth? I think that online presence research, I was hooked! I applied to a Human-Centered Computing both as opportunities to explore and ways to collaborate on research is one of the most important tools in one’s research arsenal. This Q: You recently attended a CMW for early-career researchers. How did Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech. At first, I thought I wanted to go into at other universities. For example, last summer my husband and I is how people discover what you do, how you get connected with you find out about this opportunity? What did you find most valuable industry because I had great industry internship experiences during spent a month living in Chicago. The year before that, we were able opportunities, and frequently is the first experience potential students about the workshop? What ongoing relationships or activities have graduate school. I accepted a position at AT&T Labs Research. It was to spend a whole month living and working in Tel Aviv. There are very have with you. My online footprint centers mostly on my blog (http:// come out of this experience? I have a very supportive department! great to be able to work with such a talented team of colleagues and few jobs where something like this is possible! lanayarosh.com/blog/). I post monthly on topics including the role The department head and 3 or 4 other folks forwarded information to I learned a lot from the collaborations with experts there. But I also of HCI in Computer Science, social justice issues in technology, and me about the CMW for early-career researchers on the same day! So, found that I really missed the energy and optimism that students I also always make sure to stay strongly connected with my reflections on teaching and research. At first, I thought of this blog I knew that I should really check it out. It was a great experience. My brought to the table. Summer was my favorite time of the year friends, family, and support network. Since most of them are not in more as a personal place for reflection and cataloguing thought, but favorite part of it was being able to connect with faculty at multiple because I would get to work with and advise interns! I did a bit of Minneapolis, this means making opportunities to travel to connect. over time it has began to attract an audience. My two most viewed points in their career. I like being able to think a couple of steps soul-searching and decided that maybe I should consider going back My husband and I have a strong core group of friends from grad posts received over 9000 and over 5000 views respectively, which ahead. So, I loved being able to see not just what is important for me to academia. After a few months on the job market, I finally landed at school. We live all over the country, but we always make sure to is definitely more eyes than any of my published papers. I now see to get tenure but also start thinking about longer-term advancement the University of Minnesota. So far, it’s the perfect fit for me -- I have spend a week together to celebrate New Years. We’ve been doing it as a great opportunity to disseminate work and expand impact. and impact. great students, great mentors, and great peers! this for over five years now, each time picking a different location to For students in my group, it is a mandatory part of the process --- meet up. This year we spent New Years in a cabin in upstate New when they publish a paper, they have to contribute a blog post to our After the workshop, I was able to connect with a few folks more Q: In your current position, what are your goals and the opportunities York, enjoying the fireplace, playing a ton of board games, and taking research group’s page. We’ve had a few of these receive quite a bit junior than me (swapping grants, etc.) and a few folks more senior to make an impact? One of my favorite things about academia is that turns cooking for each other. of attention. than me as well. One of the most valuable things to come out of there are so many different ways to have impact. Of course, there are it was a conversation that I had with an industry colleague from the usual -- publishing, organizing conferences, and teaching. There Q: There’s a lot of talk these days about “AI”, data science and machine Q: You participate in Maker Faires and incorporate embodied / situated Microsoft Research. We starting chatting about an area of research are also lots of opportunities to transition work into industry (for learning. What challenges should a person wanting to work in both activities in your research and teaching. How do you think that that we’ve both been meaning to explore. It turned out that there example, HP is currently licensing some work from my group), to file HCI and data science/ML be looking at? Machine learning and data dealing with the opportunities and constraints of the physical world was a really interesting project in there and we’re now in the process patents, and to spin up startups. I definitely want to keep pushing in mining are really powerful tools! I myself have been reaching into strengthens your work? I think that embodied interaction defines the of structuring a collaboration on a first investigation that we’ll be both scholarly and entrepreneurial directions, but my most important these domains (particularly recently, as I have begun a productive next age of computing. As we moved from mainframes to personal running this summer! goal right now is to have an impact through mentorship and advising. collaboration with Prof. Arindam Banerjee in my department). I think computers (PCs) to mobile computing, technology became more and I want to be known as an advisor who does right by her students more embedded in our lives, homes, and even on our bodies. As we Q: What advice do you have for Ph.D, students? For new faculty and for graduating the next crop of Computer Science superstars! I think about computing, we need to shift our focus from designing members? Figure out which work activities charge you up and spend my time accordingly -- I make sure to make time to connect sites, programs, or apps that people “visit” and instead consider how make sure to make time for these. Whether what drives you is with my students daily, I have a big group, and I am always recruiting technology can best be embedded, embodied, and living in the world programming, experiments, giving talks, teaching, planning research, graduate and undergraduate researchers to my lab! along with us. Physical computing, embodied interaction, tangible analyzing data, etc. there are probably ways to structure any project technologies, etc. allow us to leverage the intuition, skills, and to maximize your involvement in these activities. Then, take time to Q: Tell us about someone who inspires you and the knowledge they capacity that we currently have for interacting with our world and reflect and express gratitude when you do find opportunities to do have imparted. My greatest inspiration is my Ph.D. advisor, Gregory apply it to our interactions with digital agents. Of course, there are what you love. It’s still amazing to me how I can get caught up in Abowd. As any of his students will tell you, he really exemplifies also a number of challenges these approaches introduce. We need to some painful minutia of the job and it takes a conversation with an caring mentorship, perspective, and integrity. He taught me to put be mindful to keep the interests of people and communities who use outsider to step back and see the larger picture. I’ve been practicing my students first and how to provide students with opportunities to these technologies primary on the design agenda. finding moments to reflect on how much enjoyment I actually get Lana and friends celebrating New Years from doing what I do!

8 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER 9 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER CRA-W Alums Elected as Members of the NAE Alum News

Membership in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is by election based on accomplishment in engineering discipline Dominique Dalani DeArtez Grace California State University, Dominguez Hills Talladega College In November of 2016, I was selected My experience with the CREU program has been amazing, it really Julia Hirschberg Katherine A. Yelick as one of thirteen Advancing Women has open my eyes and expanded my knowledge about cyber Columbia University Lawrence Berkeley National Lab In Technology scholarship recipients. crime. I enjoyed blogging and posting about different cyber crimes University of California, Berkeley This award’s main purpose is to throughout the world. I plan on going out more into my community Recognized for contributions to the use of prosody in text-to- Recognized for software innovation promote the advancement of women and spreading the knowledge behind my research and what I have speech and spoken dialogue and leadership in high-performance in California who are studying and learned about cyber crime. systems, and to audio browsing computing.”education. pursuing careers in technology. I have and retrieval. also been selected to attend the 2017 Katherine was most recently a Women In Cybersecurity Conference Rebecca Hsieh Julia currently serves as co-chair panelist at the 2015 CRA-W mid- (WiCyS) in Tuscon, Arizona. Western Washington University of CRA-W. career mentoring workshop. As an undergraduate student, I Wendy Fisher found GHC 2016 to be an extremely Colorado School of Mines rewarding experience. I attended I am in the last year of my PhD as one of CRA-W’s GHC Research studies at the Colorado School Scholars. Being surrounded by so of Mines, working with an many women and supporters of CRA-W Alums Win Awards interdisciplinary team under the women in technology was astounding. supervision of Dr. Tracy Camp. I attended talks of every variety! The Our goal is to develop data-driven career fair at GHC also provided many techniques for the advancement opportunities, however, the most Nancy Amato Ruzena K. Bajcsy of health monitoring of flood important opportunity for me was Texas A&M Texas A&M defense structures. In June of that I was able to speak to faculty The IEEE RAS Distinguished Service The National Academy of 2016, I presented “Crack Detection from various schools around the country. After attending GHC, my Award recognizes individuals who Engineering Award was in Earth Dam and Levee Passive plans to attend graduate school were solidified. GHC gave me the have performed outstanding service established in 1965 to honor Seismic Data Using Support Vector Machines” at the International motivation to continue my undergraduate bioinformatics research. for the benefit and advancement of an outstanding NAE member Conference on Computational Science in San Diego, California. It also gave me a better idea of how to search for graduate schools the IEEE Robotics and Automation or foreign member who has After competitive selection, I was invited to expand the paper for as well as how I might go about applying to those schools. I am also Society (RAS). upheld the ideals and principles publication in a special issue of the Journal of Computational Science. really excited to announce that the bioinformatics research paper I of the NAE through professional, I also won the Colorado School of Mines Electrical Engineering and have been working on has been published by IEEE! Nancy is a 2017 recipient of this educational, and personal Computer Science Outstanding Research Award. award “for innovative leadership in achievement and accomplishment the RAS Electronic Products and Services Board and in ICRA and Ruzena is a 2017 recipient of this award “for seminal contributions Lauren Gillespie Jingling Li IROS conferences”. to the fields of computer vision, robotics, and medical imaging, Southwestern University Bryn Mawr College and technology and policy leadership in computer science Recently I was chosen to participate in the The Computer System, I am now writing two theses (one Nancy is co-chair of CRA-W. education and research.” Cluster, and Networking Summer Institute internship at Los Alamos for my Math major and the other National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I am excited to for my CS major) and I am going Ruzena is a former board member of CRA-W. be able to work with the High Performance Computing Division to graduate this coming May. I where I will be able to expand my passion for computing through hope to pursue further education hands-on learning about cluster computing and performing real- in computer science, I am waiting time research on computer clusters. I am also looking forward to for results from the graduate exploring the beautiful state of New Mexico, as hiking and rock schools I applied to. climbing are two of my favorite outdoor activities.

10 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER 11 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER Kristin Yvonne Rozier Iowa State University Scholarships for Women CERP Receives SIGCSE Exemplary Paper Award In 2016 I moved to Iowa State Studying Information Security University, where I am an by Jeremy Epstein, SRI International CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP) was From the abstract: “Computing self-efficacy and sense of belonging Assistant Professor and Director created by CRA-W’s BPC Alliance to perform evaluation of our are known predictors of motivation and persistence. As such, these of the Laboratory for Temporal programs and research on diversity in computing. psychological states are important to study in order to broaden Now in its sixth year, seven winners of the ACSA / CRA-W / HPE Logic in Aerospace Engineering. participation in computing. This study examined the relationship Scholarships for Women Studying Information Security (SWSIS) met I enjoyed collaborating with my A paper from CERP was recently named an “Exemplary paper” in the between (a) introductory computing course experiences and (b) at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) new colleagues to host Midwest 2017 SIGCSE Proceedings. New this year, the SIGCSE program chairs self-efficacy and sense of belonging in computing, focusing on in Los Angeles on December 5-9 2016. Since its inception, SWSIS Verification Day at ISU!. I am the recognized a new category of the top 25% of accepted papers as differences by gender and college generation status. We found that has awarded over $300,000 to women studying cybersecurity. recipient of an NSF CAREER Award “Exemplary papers”, highlighted for their accomplishment of high the relationship between some introductory course experiences SWSIS Scholars attend well known colleges like Carnegie Mellon for “Theoretical Foundations quality, novelty and broad appeal to reviewers. and self-efficacy and sense of belonging was strongest among and Columbia, but also less famous schools like Ferris State, Dakota of the UAS in the NAS Problem (Unmanned Aerial Systems in the first-generation college women, which reveals the importance State, and University of North Texas. National Air Space).”, and a NASA Early Career Faculty Award The paper, “Examining the Relationship Between Introductory of considering women’s experiences in light of their additional for “Multi-Platform, Multi-Architecture Runtime Verification of Computing Course Experiences, Self Efficacy, and Belonging Among intersectional identities.” Awards were presented by Jeremy Epstein, managing director of the Autonomous Space Systems.” First Generation College Women,” was written by Jennifer Blaney, SWSIS program, and Linda Chung Mahoney, representing Hewlett a Ph.D. student at UCLA and the senior data manager for the BRAID The full paper is available at http://cra.org/cerp/wp-content/ Packard Enterprise, a major financial sponsor of the scholarship Nikita Tank research project, and Jane Stout, director of CERP. uploads/sites/4/2017/02/Blaney-and-Stout-Final-SIGCSE-Paper.pdf. Botsfloor program. The SWSIS Scholars who attended ACSAC are part of a I am a software engineer at botsfloor.com where I developed the larger group of 16 winners for the 2016-17 academic year. They spent site Bot Stash. I recently wrote a post on how to develop facebook the week attending workshops on digital forensics, car hacking, messenger chatbots without any coding: https://tutorials.botsfloor. and industrial control systems, as well as hearing research papers com/how-to-build-facebook-messenger-chat-bot-without-any- from across the spectrum of cybersecurity including embedded coding-4fe42393e2e4#.lkcw8lufm. security, applied cryptography, sidechannels, and anti-censorship techniques. While half the attendees are undergraduates, they Tiara Threadford enjoyed the opportunity to meet with faculty and grad students, Talladega College as well as industry and government representatives in hallway I am very grateful that CREU awarded me a research opportunity. discussions. There were plenty of opportunities to make new The CREU staff were very helpful and responsive whenever we connections over meals, and to enjoy a live jazz performance by contacted them, I love the topic that we are doing the research the Cal State University Northridge band. on, cybersecurity. That is one of the biggest concerns right now in today’s society, I had the opportunity to inform students here Next year’s winners will receive their awards at the ACSAC at Talladega College of what cybersecurity really is and what it’s conference in San Juan PR, Dec 4-8 2017. For information about about. If CREU wants me to participate in any more research with scholarship sponsorship or scholarship winners, please visit http:// them I will be honored to because of how helpful they were with www.swsis.org. this research.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines

Apr. 7-8: CRA-W Grad Cohort Workshop - Washington, D.C. Jun. 15: Proposal deadline for Discipline Specific Workshop Apr. 18: Virtual Undergraduate Town Hall - Privacy in program Today’s World with Rebecca Wright Sep. 20-23: Mentoring Tracks at the ACM Richard Tapia May 22-24: NCWIT Summit - Tucson, AZ Celebration of Diversity in Computing - Atlanta, GA May 18: Application deadline for 2016-17 CREU Oct. 4-6: Mentoring Tracks at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Diversity in Computing - Orlando, FL Jun. 13: Virtual Undergraduate Town Hall - Planning Motions for Robots, Crowds and Proteins with Nancy Rolling: CRA-W Distinguished Lecture Series program Amato

13 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER 12 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER News from Affiliated Groups: Profiles in Computing: Tanya Amert Indiana Celebration of Women in Computing by Shar Steed, CRA Communications Specialist by Alka Harriger, Purdue University The 2016 Indiana Celebration of Women in Computing (InWIC) was Tanya Amert, a computer Virtual Undergraduate Town Hall (VUTH) this summer, Amert held on September 30-October 1 at the Four Points Sheraton in science Ph.D. student gladly accepted and shared her experiences with the participants. West Lafayette, Indiana. Previous InWIC’s were held during the at University of North VUTH events are webinar sessions designed to give students the spring, but this year’s event began the transition to a fall offering. Carolina, Chapel Hill, found opportunity to learn more about a specific discipline in computer The reason for the change to a fall offering was two-fold: better herself drawn to computer science and also ask the host and speaker mentoring questions to weather and better opportunities for internships/full-time jobs. science because she help them prepare for graduate school. enjoyed figuring out how Through the support of eleven sponsors, including funding from things work. At 13 years During the webinar, Amert conducted a research presentation titled, CRA-W as part of the Distinquished Lecture Program (DLS), InWIC old, she was a big fan of “Accelerated Cloth Simulation for Virtual Try-On.” She described the raised over $20,000, which supported the attendance of 145 people, the Neopets website and hosting experience as both “intimidating” and “exciting”. It was Attendees talk to recruiters about job opportunities at including 72 undergraduate students, 31 graduate students, 20 the InWIC 2016 Career Fair online community. Amert intimidating to know that the audience was tuning in from around university faculty/staff, and 22 IT professionals. Academic attendees noticed some users had the globe and that she may influence the trajectory of a young 45 attendees provided feedback by completing the survey that came from Arsenal Tech High School, Ball State University, DePauw customized homepages, and her interest grew even more. Despite person’s career. It was exciting because the participants are on the was included in their program. Over 90% of the respondents University, Indiana State University, Indiana University, IUPUI, Ivy not knowing any HTML at the time, she learned how to look at the cusp of a big life step, and Amert vividly remembers her experiences responded favorably (agreeing or strongly agreeing) to the following Tech Community College, Purdue University, and Rose-Hulman source code and figured out how to change the color of the scroll applying to graduate school. “It was also really motivating to be statements about the effect of their attendance at InWIC: University. IT professionals came from Apparatus, Cerner Corp, bar within the CSS. “I discovered that specific lines of HTML made able to share my insights with other people because I’ve already • Increased my commitment to complete my current degree program Ciholas Inc., Crowe Horwath LLP, Eli Lilly and Co, General Motors, that happen. And I thought that was mind boggling and awesome.” been through the experience.” (100% of the respondents said they have or would complete a Liberty Mutual, Neurensic, Raytheon, and USAA. computing degree) Computer science was not offered at her high school, so as a Presenting at the webinar also helped her practice how to explain • Helped me see myself as a computing person Undergraduate and graduate students who presented 15 lightning freshman at MIT, she enrolled in her first programming class and her research in a high level way to broader audience. She presented • Positively impacted my professional development talks and 22 posters gave everyone an opportunity to see the it “completely clicked” for her. After graduating Amert, spent three the same set of slides to her mother, who doesn’t have a technical • Made me feel part of a community of women in computing impressive work of female students across Indiana. One of the years in industry working at Microsoft. But she began to feel like the background, to help her mother understand specifically what her • Fed my interest in a computing career platinum sponsors, USAA, provided prizes for the top poster and projects she was really excited about were coming out of Microsoft research is about. • Inspired me to emulate the successful women I saw at the top lightning talk. The winning poster was presented by Miranda Research. So, she got in touch with a contact there who told her if conference Lung, a Purdue University senior, who shared her work on, “Natural she really wanted to be working on the cutting edge of research, Despite successes, Amert also battles with feelings of imposter • Increased my network of technical women Language Processing: Graphing an Ontology.” The winning lightning a Ph.D. was needed. Amert then felt like a Ph.D. would open more syndrome. To combat this, one thing she finds useful, especially • Motivated me to stay in touch with people I met at the conference talk was presented by the duo of Izabelle Bystrowicz and Jacqueline doors than they would close, and began applying to Ph.D. programs. when she starts to feel discouraged or like she doesn’t belong, is to • Taught me about opportunities at sponsor companies Pelletier, both sophomores at DePauw University. The pair shared, focus on her positive outcomes. Amert was previously a tutor and “Balancing Your Life and Your Resume.” Amert’s specialty is in computer graphics, specifically physically- kept her course evaluations, so she often looks back at her positive Both keynote speakers made the InWIC experience memorable based simulations. She first took an interest in cloth simulation reviews when she gets discouraged. for all. Dr. Raquel Hill, an Associate Professor at Indiana University after watching extra features on a Shrek DVD. “I was so fascinated related her insights using the analogy of being an eagle among that they had these tools to model characters and improve the Profiles in Computing chickens. Dr. Carolyn Phillips, the Lead Scientist at Neurensic, visualization.” It inspired her to take a computer graphics class in shared useful, online resources that showed the beauty of data. her junior year of college, and this is the focus of her Ph.D. research. Part of the mission of the Computing Research Association (CRA) is to mentor and cultivate the talent development of computing The success of InWIC is due to the tireless voluntary activities In undergrad, Amert did not participate in many women in computer researchers at all levels. Several programs led by the Committee of many including, but not limited to the keynote speakers, Day- science activities because of her heavy course load. But after on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) focus on In-The-Life panelists, proposal reviewers and review coordinator, experiencing some isolation in the working world, she returned increasing gender diversity in computing. This new column, “Profiles judging coordinator, speaker coordinator, school coordinators, and to school with a personal commitment to become more active in in Computing,” showcases successful women in computing, who our student assistant. the community. At Microsoft, Amert would often be one of only donate their time and energy to mentoring future generations and two female engineers in a room of 15-20 people, and began to strengthening the community of female computing researchers Attendees listen to Raquel Hill describe how each of them The Distinguished Lecture Series is proud to support the next InWIC feel the disparity. So when she was invited to speak at CRA-W’s through CRA-W initiatives. is an eagle among chickens by providing Raquel Hill and Carolyn Phillips as keynote speakers.

14 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER 15 • CRA-W NEWSLETTER About CRA-W

CRA-W Board Members

Co-Chairs Susanne Hambrusch, Purdue University Nancy Amato, Texas A&M University Soha Hassoun, Tufts University Julia Hirschberg, Columbia University Ayanna Howard, Georgia Tech Anna Karlin, University of Washington Deb Agarwal, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Ming Lin, University of North Carolina A. J. Bernheim Brush, Microsoft Research Patty Lopez, Intel Tracy Camp, Colorado School of Mines Kathryn McKinley, Google Sheila Castañeda, Clarke University Gail Murphy, University of British Columbia Lori A. Clarke, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Lori Pollock, University of Delaware Andrea Danyluk, Williams College Susan Rodger, Duke University Dilma Da Silva, Texas A&M University Holly Rushmeier, Yale University Sandhya Dwarkadas, University of Rochester Amanda Stent, Bloomberg LP Carla Ellis, Duke University Rebecca Wright, Rutgers University Maria Gini, University of Minnesota Yuquing Melanie Wu, Pomona College CRA-W Emerita Members Fran Berman, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mary Jane Irwin, Penn State University Carla Brodley, Northeastern University Leah Jamieson, Purdue University Anne Condon, University of British Columbia Maria Klawe, Harvey Mudd College Jan Cuny, National Science Foundation Nancy G. Leveson, MIT Kathleen Fisher, Tufts University Margaret Martonosi, Princeton University Joan Francioni, Winona State College Mary Lou Soffa, University of Virginia Mary Jean Harrold, Georgia Tech

CRA-W is an action-oriented committee of the Computing Research Association dedicated to increasing the access, retention, and advancement of women in computer science and engineering research and education, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and industry and government research labs. See more about CRA-W and its activities at http://www.cra-w.org.

CRA-W has received funding from the Computing Research Association, Microsoft Research, Association for Computing Machinery, Google, Intel, The U.S. Department of Energy - Office of Science, National Science Foundation, Capital One, IBM, Toyota Research Institute, AAAI, ACM SIGACT, ACM SIGAI, ACM SIGARCH, ACM SIGCHI, ACM SIGCOMM, ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM SIGIR, ACM SIGMICRO, ACM SIGMOBILE, ACM SIGOPS, ACM SIGPLAN, ACM SIGSOFT, Amazon, D. E. Shaw Research, Facebook, and Two Sigma. We thank them for their support.

CRA-W encourages individual contributions from alums of our programs and other CRA-W friends. Because CRA-W programs have touched so many lives, this initiative is an outlet for alums and friends to make contributions toward reaching the next generation of women computer scientists and engineers. To donate to CRA-W, visit http://www.cra.org/cra-w/donate/. www.cra-w.org @CRAWomen